Having knowledge of a second language can be of great importance for a variety of reasons. For example, the ability to move from one country to another, whether for business or pleasure, has increased the interaction between people having different native tongues. Likewise, people are more able, and thus more likely, to relocate to new countries, for example, to seek opportunities that may be unavailable in their homelands. Accordingly, the number of people that are not fluent in a primary language spoken in the country in which they reside has increased in recent years.
In the United States, for example, many non-native English speakers seek to learn the English language as part of a typical school curriculum. Other non-native English speakers attempt to learn the English language simply to increase their ability to function in society. Even for those outside of the United States and/or other English-speaking countries, the ability to read, write and converse in English can provide numerous opportunities in, for example, the business and academic worlds.
Presently, when instructing a student that is a non-native speaker in learning a native language or when using a native language to provide instruction in another field such as mathematics, history, and the like, an instructor typically is unable to accommodate the student appropriately. For example, the ability to provide appropriate texts to English language learners (also, ELL students or students) of differing proficiencies has slowed the progress of English language instruction for non-native speakers. Obtaining texts that match each student's reading proficiency in order to facilitate the development of reading skills, content understanding and language development by each student has proven difficult. If such a text is unavailable, a teacher might need to adapt a text to the student's needs. Accordingly, the manual adaptation of texts has been proposed as a means of assisting ELL students at different levels of reading proficiency. See D. Short, “How to Integrate Language and Content Instruction: A Training Manual,” Center for Applied Linguistics (1991) and J. Echevarria et al., “Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners: the SIOP Model,” Pearson Education, Inc. (2004), each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Manual text adaptation, including text support in the form of vocabulary strengthening and summarizing activities, has become wide-spread practice amongst content area teachers who teach EELs.
One problem with manually adapting texts is that the process is laborious. The amount of time required for a teacher or other person to modify a text to enable the ELL student to comprehend the information can be prohibitive. In addition, a teacher might not be conversant in the ELL student's native language and may not have access to another person that can interpret the text. As such, the teacher might not be able to provide an appropriate interpretation of the English text for the student.
When adapting texts, a number of approaches have been suggested for a teacher to help ELL students with language and content knowledge directed toward the improvement of reading skills. A number of research studies suggest that certain kinds of text modifications, specifically vocabulary expansion and elaboration, like the provision of synonyms and support of native language cognates (i.e., words which have the same spelling and meaning in two languages), can facilitate students' comprehension of content in a text. For example, vocabulary development is understood to be important to developing understanding in a content area. In addition, reading comprehension has been cited as being important to learning English. See J. Echevarria et al. (2004) and Reed, B. et al., “Strategies and Resources for Mainstream Teachers of English Language Learners,” Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (2003), each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. It has been shown that comprehension can be disrupted given a high proportion of unknown words. See D. August, “Supporting the Development of English Literacy in English Language Learners: Key Issues and Promising Practices,” Report No. 61, The Johns Hopkins University (2003), which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Alternate methods of providing support for ELL students may include pairing ELL students having a low proficiency with ELL students having a high proficiency and a same native language background to assist the less proficient students. See R. Gertsen et al., “Recent Research on Effective Instructional Practices for Content Area ESOL,” in “Promoting Learning for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students,” R. Gertsen and R. Jimenez (eds.) (1998), which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In addition, groups of teachers and/or other individuals may develop adapted texts. See J. Echevarria, “Preparing Text and Classroom Materials for English Language Learners: Curriculum Adaptations in Secondary School Settings,” in “Promoting Learning for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students,” R. Gertsen and R. Jimenez (eds.) (1998), which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
However, none of these methods significantly reduces or eliminates the substantial amount of time and effort required to prepare adapted texts appropriate for ELL students. Moreover, adapting texts to meet the proficiency levels of numerous students requires a plurality of adaptations to be produced for a single text. This necessarily increases the amount of effort to be expended by those adapting texts.
What is needed is a method and system for enabling the rapid adaptation of texts for ELL students.
A need exists for a method and system that adapts texts based on the proficiency of an ELL student.
A further need exists for a method and system that can adapt text in a plurality of ways to provide an individualized adaptation for an ELL student.
The disclosed embodiments are directed to solving one or more of the above problems.